If we are to live, we have to use those helps necessary for living. And we cannot avoid those things that seem to serve delight more than necessity. Therefore, we must hold to a standard so as to use them with a clear conscience.
By his Word, the Lord teaches that the present life is, for his people, like a pilgrimage on which they are hastening toward the heavenly kingdom. If we must pass through this world, there is no doubt we ought to use its good things insofar as they help rather than hinder our course. Thus Paul rightly persuades us to use this world as if not using it (1 Cor. 7:30, 31).
But because this topic is a slippery one and slopes on both sides into error, let us try to plant our feet where we may safely stand. There were some otherwise good and holy men who, when they saw intemperance and wantonness raging with unbridled excess, desired to correct this dangerous evil. One plan occurred to them: to use physical goods only insofar as necessity required. A godly counsel indeed, but they were far too severe. They fettered consciences more tightly than does the Word of the Lord-a very dangerous thing. To them necessity means to abstain from all things they could do without. To them, it would scarcely be permitted to add any food at all to plain bread and water.
On the other hand, many today seek an excuse for intemperance. In their licentious indulgence, they take for granted what I do not at all concede: that this freedom is not to be restrained by any limitation but is to be left to every man’s conscience.
Certainly I admit that consciences neither ought to nor can be bound here to definite and precise legal formulas. But inasmuch as Scripture gives general rules for lawful use, we ought surely to limit our use in accordance with them.
Keeping God’s purpose in mind
Let this be our principle: that we remember the end to which the Author himself created these gifts-for our good, not for our ruin.
If we ponder to what end God created food, we find that he meant not only to provide for necessity, but also for delight and good cheer. The purpose of clothing, apart from necessity, was comeliness and decency. In grasses, trees, and fruits, apart from their various uses, there is beauty of appearance and pleasantness of odor. Thus the prophet reckoned among the benefits of God, “wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face shine” (Ps. 104:15). Away, then, with that inhuman philosophy that concedes only a necessary use of God’s creation and not only malignantly deprives us of the lawful fruit of God’s beneficence, but also cannot be practiced unless it robs a man of all his senses and degrades him to a block.
But no less diligently, we must resist the lust of the flesh. For unless it is kept in order, it overflows without measure. Its advocates, under the pretext of the freedom conceded by God, permit everything. One bridle is put upon it if we determine that all things were created for us so that we might recognize the Author and give thanks for his kindness toward us. Where is our thanksgiving if we so gorge ourselves that we become stupid or are rendered useless for the duties of piety and of our calling?
Aspiration to eternal life
There is no surer course than that we receive from contempt of the present life and meditation upon heavenly immortality. Two rules follow: those who use this world should be so affected as if they did not use it, as Paul enjoins. The other rule is that they should know how to bear poverty patiently, as well as how to bear abundance moderately.
Though the freedom of believers in external matters is not to be restricted to a fixed formula, yet it is surely subject to this law: to indulge oneself as little as possible, and to insist upon cutting off all show of superfluous wealth, not to mention licentiousness, and diligently to guard against turning helps into hindrances.
Those of slender resources should know how to go without things patiently, lest they be troubled by an immoderate desire for them. If they keep this rule, they will make considerable progress in the Lord’s school. Besides the fact that most other vices accompany the desire for earthly things, he who bears poverty impatiently will also, when in prosperity, commonly betray the contrary disease. He who is ashamed of mean clothing will boast of costly clothing if they fall to his lot. He who bears with a troubled mind his humble condition, will by no means abstain from arrogance if he be advanced to honors. To this end, then, let all those for whom the pursuit of piety is not a pretense strive to learn, by the apostle’s example, how to be filled and to hunger, to abound and to suffer want.
-John Calvin
Copyright © 1988 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
